New Uganda Prime Minister Sworn; He Warns Against Taking Revenge

Paulo Muwanga, vice president and defense minister in the deposed regime of President Milton Obote, was sworn in Thursday as Uganda’s prime minister. He called on remaining armed groups to lay down their weapons and pointedly warned against any attempts at tribal or political revenge.

Urging Uganda’s victorious army units to end looting and not seek reprisals against supporters of Obote’s Uganda People’s Congress, the 60-year-old Muwanga said:

“If somebody does that, the long arm of the law will get hold of him. And if it catches him, he will have himself to blame.”

Sources close to the regime said several hundred troops loyal to Obote had massed in the ousted leader’s hometown of Lira, 130 miles north of Kampala. Unconfirmed reports said several truckloads of army troops were sent there to put down pockets of resistance. Other reports said Obote loyalist forces attempted to seize a communications station at Mpona, 15 miles east of Kampala, but were driven off.

Several thousand soldiers and citizens jammed the garden of Parliament to watch Thursday’s inaugural ceremony, which was conducted in the pan-African tongue of Swahili instead of English, the language of Uganda’s government.

Muwanga and his Cabinet will serve until elections promised by the military leaders can be held in a year’s time, making the administration officially an interim one.

The capital showed further signs of returning to normal Thursday. Water and electricity were restored to sections where they had been cut off. Banks reopened briefly; some gasoline stations had fuel for sale.